If Not for the Slash Fans
by emcey squared
Summary: AU 2x06. It was all Dr. Childress’ fault. If it hadn’t been for her dream, Nathan never would have been standing around daydreaming about what kissing Jack Carter was really like. Stupid fangirl…
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, then second season would have been slashier.

Author – Emcey

Info – AU of 2nd Season Episode "Noche de Suenos".

Teaser – It was all Dr. Childress' fault. If it hadn't been for her dream, Nathan never would have been standing around daydreaming about what kissing Jack Carter was really like. Stupid fangirl…

_**'If Not for the Slash Fans'**_

_**Chapter One**_

Nathan sat down on his chair and reclined it all the way. Snagging a blanket out of the basket he kept between the couch and chair, Nathan pulled it over himself and let his eyes close.

He wondered if Allison had left the dream device on. He might have refused to turn it off, but that didn't really matter. It wasn't exactly complicated to turn off. If Allie really thought that it was causing the shared dreams then she'd flip the damn thing off herself.

It was getting more and more difficult to deal with Allison since returning to Eureka. Nathan still cared about her and he'd fought hard before their divorce and even for some time afterwards to try and patch up their relationship. He'd wanted Kevin to have a family that was whole. Yet… it was after Kim Anderson's death that Nathan realized the truth.

Henry loved Kim – he adored Kim more than life itself. Losing Kim nearly tore Henry into pieces; Nathan could barely bring himself to look Henry in the eyes. If it weren't for Jack, Henry probably would have left Eureka then and there. Kim had been Henry's world…

Once, Nathan felt the same way about Allison. Once, he'd felt as if losing her would rip him to shreds. Once… before she really did rip him to shreds.

Their fights had started over Nathan's tendency to continue concentrating on his work after getting home. It irritated Allison that he couldn't just shut off part of himself. It irritated him that she couldn't understand that he was either all or nothing. If he did something, then Nathan gave it his everything.

Now the truth he was starting to understand was that he wasn't in love her anymore.

Really, he ought to get up and make himself dinner, but Nathan was warm and comfortable by that time, so he just shifted a little. Curling up a little and pulling the blanket higher, Nathan let himself drift off to sleep. Yet in those moments before he fell asleep completely, Nathan's mind moved away from Allison and towards something – someone – else.

-=-=

Nathan watched nervously as Allison walked down the stairs in her pajamas and robe. He wasn't exactly certain what he was doing there, but what he had to say was important. "Allison…"

"Nathan," she cut him off. "I've made up my mind."

"So have I," Nathan agreed, and then kissed her.

Wait… that was not what he'd wanted to do. What was going on here?!

Separating from Allison, Nathan glanced to the side and noticed the Sheriff standing there. He said "Carter?", but that was all the attention he could spare before inexplicably leaning in towards Allison again. Nathan had never been grateful for having a kiss interrupted before, but when Jack's hand slid between his face and Allison's, Nathan was glad to back off even though he was irritated it was Carter.

Then Carter was kissing Allison and the jolt of jealousy that Nathan had always felt seeing the two of them flirt together flooded him. It didn't make any sense. He wasn't in love with Allison anymore. She wasn't the one he wanted to be kissing.

She wasn't…

But what about Jack?

Dr. Childress appeared out of nowhere and started talking about efficiency. That's when everything clicked. They were in someone's dream and, judging by Childress' little rant, it was likely the efficiency expert's.

"Why don't you two try then?" Childress turned Jack around so that he was facing Nathan. "Remember, efficiency of movement is key…"

It was a dream, so Nathan figured 'why not?' Leaning down slightly, he captured Jack's mouth with his own and immediately felt the response. The feeling of Jack's lips on his own was electric and warmth spread from Jack's hands, which rested on Nathan's shoulders in order to pull the taller scientist closer. Nathan moaned softly when he felt Jack's tongue against his lips and then in his mouth. The taste of Jack was overwhelming…

Then it was over. For a moment he was a spectator watching a brief snippet of Henry flashing something familiar in Jack's face and then Nathan was participating again. Everything was being spoken in Spanish, Jo was wearing a period style dress, and Fargo had on an all black outfit. Nathan could only imagine how ridiculous he looked. They were clearly playing off of 'Zorro'.

So while Nathan's 'body' in the dream acted and spoke as directed, Nathan's mind wandered back to the kiss between himself and Jack. While everything else in the dreams had been out of his control, Nathan couldn't help but feel like the kiss had been completely under his power.

Jerking awake, Nathan's first reaction was to bring his right hand up to his mouth. Even if it was just a dream… he'd kissed Jack Carter. He wondered what it would've been like if it had been real…

-=-=

After changing into clean clothes, Nathan went to GD only to learn that he'd missed out on the initial testing, most of the investigation, and Jack thought that Nathan's dream device was responsible for what was going on. Allison had tried to defend him; not that she'd tried particularly hard.

"The receiver I adapted from Suenos' device visually interprets the electrical impulses created during REM sleep," Nathan explained to the group that Carter and Allison had convened.

"So why is it messing with our acetometiphine levels?" Jack asked, sounding worn out.

"Acetylcholine," Nathan corrected automatically, with a bit of a smirk. Though really he was starting to feel worried. There were already a few people who weren't waking up and Jack looked like hell.

"Don't push me," Jack warned, his eyes sharp despite his obvious exhaustion. Nathan nodded slightly, letting Jack know he'd gotten the message. Don't mess with the sleep-deprived Sheriff: check.

"There's no reason why it would affect one person, much less half the town." Nathan glanced over at Allison and immediately knew that she would not be his ally in this.

"How many people show elevated levels?" she asked, ignoring Nathan altogether.

"Fifty, total," Henry responded immediately.

"Wait," Jack interrupted quietly, "fifty even?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Jo, you were taking the dream statements, right?" Jack turned to his deputy, who looked down at her notes.

"Yeah and I had around about fifty different dreams that were shared by everyone else."

"Well, they're the sources of the dreams," Henry sounded excited. Not that Nathan could blame him. This was the break they'd been looking for. Fifty was an even number that made for a good initial testing pool. Clearly this was caused by some GD experiment, not Nathan's dream device. "I mean, that's why their acetylcholine levels are so high."

Jack took the pad away from Jo to look over her findings. "Okay, so what do we know about these fifty people?"

"But my name isn't on there," Fargo pointed out.

"That's a good thing, Fargo," Nathan muttered, not really paying attention anymore. It was completely impossible that he'd had any control in those dreams last night so it couldn't have been his own impulses that led to him kissing Carter. It was all on Childress, apparently. So why did that make him feel so disappointed?

"I know," Fargo sounded amused, "because that means that I wasn't the one who had the man in black dream."

Nathan looked up to see everyone looking between himself and Jo. "Well it sure as hell wasn't me." He smirked at Jo whose reaction was a little slow; clearly she was pretty tired herself.

"Oh god," she mumbled and then closed her eyes. Her hands made the trip to her face, but she managed to resist the urge to hide her face behind them.

"Focus," Jack's tone was growing more urgent. "Jake, you, me… we're all on the list, alright? So we're searching his house and what do we find we have in common?"

"Uh… none of us realized our full potential?" Jo shrugged as Jack shot her an irritated look.

"Well… yes… but we're also the same pay grade: G3." Jack handed the computer pad over to Allison. "Can you run this list and tell me who else is G3?"

Allison tapped a few buttons, frowned at the results, and then looked up. "All of you," she confirmed.

"So fifty people, all the same pay grade, all with cranked levels of," Jack glanced over at Henry, who filled in the word 'acetylcholine' before Jack continued. "Thank you. That's got to mean something, right?"

"G3 refers to work schedule, not pay level." Allison corrected. "All the jobs have set hours so that overtime doesn't compromise safety or security."

"L-like truck drivers." Nathan noticed that Jack was starting to stammer out his words and it was increasing the longer the Sheriff spoke.

"Yes. Or reactor technicians or weapons test specialists… uh, network engineers?" Allison trailed off and shook her head. She just couldn't see the connection.

"The network…" Jack interrupted, latching onto something that everyone else was overlooking. Even when he was so fatigued that he was beginning to stutter, Jack Carter still managed to see connections where scientists failed. Nathan suddenly knew that Jack was about to prove that the dream device was partially responsible for what was going on.

"What about it?" Allison asked.

"Um… Childress was saying she was working on some… some sort of neural network." Jack looked irritated that he couldn't remember more.

"Yes, she's beta testing a system of distributive computing with humans," Allison filled in.

"Okay…" Jack didn't appear to really know what to do with the extra information. "But given that Stark's dream receiver isn't powerful enough to cause shared dreaming, could the neural network be used as an amplifier?"

Carter shoots, he scores! Dammit…

"It's possible," Nathan admitted, moving to standing up. "We should shut it down."

"Carter?" Jo sounded panicky and Nathan looked over to where she was sitting on the couch. He hadn't even noticed her go over there.

"Yeah?" Jack responded.

"Do it fast."

"You're not coming?"

Nathan had a sinking feeling that was confirmed with Jo's next few words.

"Um, I would," Jo looked scared despite the calm tone she was using, "but I can't move my legs."

Henry and Fargo hurried over to check on Jo while Nathan and Jack exchanged looks. Nathan wondered what Jack saw on his face that made the Sheriff avert his eyes so fast.

Jo couldn't move, there was a dead truck driver, and there were a lot of people not waking up. Oh god, what had he done? He just wanted to save his son.

Oh god…

-=-=

"We all sleep a third of our lives away," Childress was saying. Nathan was paying more attention to the way Jack's hand kept clenching and unclenching. "I figured why not find a way to use our brains during the downtime?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Jack muttered, clearly not impressed.

Nathan tuned out the next conversation, not bothering to point out that technically Childress was still supposed to obtain permission to mess with someone's neural chemistry instead of conducting a double blind study. She was also supposed to ensure that the subjects were actually getting the correct amount of sleep since it was a sleep study instead of assuming they were. It should have been at least a little obvious that the town's Sheriff and Deputy didn't sleep regular hours since one of them had to be on call at all hours of the day.

"But why the sudden build up of acetylcholine?" Allison asked, getting Nathan's attention back on topic.

"Probably lack of sleep," Nathan answered quietly.

Childress practically bristled at him. "No, the people in the study were selected based on the regularity of their sleep patterns," she objected.

"Yeah, but Jake's been secretly doing double shifts and no one in town's been sleeping normally this week," Jack explained.

The look of guilt on Childress' face was oh so very familiar to Nathan. It matched how he felt exactly. "I'll shut the network down immediately," Childress assured them.

"That won't solve the buildup of acetylcholine in the test subjects," Nathan spoke up. He could barely make himself look at Jack so he looked between Jack and Childress instead of one directly. "Their bodies are overproducing the compound like a hyperactive gland."

"If you can cleanse the system of the compound entirely it may reset the body's rate of production," Childress offered.

"Oh-okay," Jack nodded, acting rather twitchy. "Good, let's do that."

"The excess neural transmitters are acting like toxins in your body and I have no idea how we scrub that out," Allison snapped. She was looking pretty scared herself. Nathan didn't blame her, though. He hadn't a clue how to fix his latest screw up either.

Jack looked annoyed as his eyes traveled from face to face. "So GD has the most advanced waste reduction system in the world, but we can't clean this stuff out of us?"

Allison looked like she wanted to tell Jack that it wasn't that simple but couldn't find the right words. So she turned her attention to Nathan and gave him a look that practically begged him to explain things to Jack. Except… Jack's words had sparked an idea.

"Maybe we can," Nathan hedged.

Thirty minutes later, Jack was in a wet suit in a tank filled with oxygen rich plasma that, theoretically, would purge the acetylcholine from Jack's body. In reality, Jack looked like he was drowning.

Well fuck. All Nathan really wanted to do with Jack was see what kissing him outside of their dreams was like and here he was almost drowning the man instead. He could only dimly hear Allison's objections as he stared at Jack, willing the man to breathe… to survive.

"Come on, Carter," Allie muttered, echoing Nathan's thoughts.

Still, inside the tank, Jack jerked and struggled as he tried to breathe in the plasma. Then the readouts began to stabilize and, as though a switch had been flicked, Jack was breathing the plasma normally, as if it was unusually thick air.

"His acetylcholine levels are dropping," Allison observed in relief.

"Oxygen's on the rise," he confirmed.

"He's going to be okay." Allison sounded like she was smiling.

"He's going to be fine… and we have a cure," Nathan absolutely hated himself for what he had to say next, but Kevin was still his first priority, "which means we can keep moving forward with our research." The look on Allison's face was torn, which about matched how Nathan felt. He didn't want to use the dream device anymore, but what choice was there? Nathan left before Allison could say anything or, worse, he said something he'd regret.

Wandering aimlessly, Nathan didn't have a destination in mind but wasn't all that surprised when he found himself standing in front of his empty lab. Walking inside, Nathan seated himself in one of the chairs and leaned forward. His head rested in his hands while his elbows perched precariously on his knees. Without warning, his whole body began to shake as everything – the guilt over what his dream device had caused, his fears for Kevin, and the sudden onslaught of feelings for Carter – finally overwhelmed him.

A/N - Here's part one of three. This episode is one of my favorites all because of the 'man if black' dream. The swordfight between Fargo and Stark was hilarious and the blatant Zorro references... the kissing scene was funny too, but it really needed one little addition... having Nathan and Jack kiss. So adding that in was the perfect segue into the 'slash fan' challenge that Kit presented me with.

Hehehe...


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, then second season would have been slashier.

_**Chapter Two**_

Nathan woke up with a crick in his neck, a stiff body, and the panicky feeling of not knowing just where he was. It took a few minutes for it to sink in that he'd fallen asleep at his desk at GD and that it was some time after noon. Odds were that the majority, if not all, of the people affected by the neural network and his dream device had been cured already.

Well, everyone except for the dead truck driver.

Swallowing convulsively, Nathan fought back a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. After a few minutes he was fine and decided that he wasn't feeling well because he hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the day before and from sleeping odd hours. He'd be fine once he had something to eat.

On his way out of GD, Nathan passed by Fargo's desk and watched his ex-assistant guiltily close something on his computer.

"Fargo, what was that?"

"What was what?"

Nathan's eyes narrowed. "Whatever the hell it is you just closed on your computer screen."

"Oh… that…" Fargo stammered and then swallowed nervously. "Nothing. It was nothing."

"Oh really?" Nathan felt a headache coming on, but he circled around the desk and pulled up the window. It was an internet browser designed specifically for use with Eureka's intraweb, an intranet used by the entire town. Within was a fanfiction written by Dr. Childress that was basically 'fan-servicing smut'. It was the typical sort of thing that Fargo would read, except for two small details. The main characters were Nathan Stark and Jack Carter. "What the hell is this?"

"Well… uh…" Fargo swallowed and looked like he wanted to curl up and die on the spot. "It's, um… Dr. Childress has been writing these for weeks now and they've gotten pretty popular. After that, uh, kissing dream she had last night, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about."

"She's been _what_?!" Nathan growled out.

"She's not the only one," Fargo stammered out. "There are other writers. It's all fiction and it isn't meant to hurt anyone…"

The headache building up between Nathan's temples spiked some and his glare at Fargo grew more intense as a result. "God knows that I'm not going to be able to get that…" he gestured wordlessly at the screen, "off the web and if I kill you, Allison will likely fire me, so just stop reading it at work." Then he deactivated the window and smacked Fargo lightly upside the head before walking away.

After arriving home, Nathan rifled through his pantry until he found some soup. It wasn't hard to keep thoughts of the dream-kiss with Jack or what little he'd read of the 'fanfiction' out his mind what with how badly his head hurt, but the headache was also making his stomach rebel and he only had about a third of the soup before heading to his room to burrow under the covers of his bed and pass out.

-=-=

Around noon the next day, Nathan was still curled up in bed. He'd missed dinner, again, and had a vague recollection of waking up at his usual time that morning only to call in sick and pass out again. The fact that Fargo hadn't shown up demanding to know if he was dying was probably a good sign.

At least, Nathan was assuming that Fargo hadn't shown up. The front door was locked and the accident prone man didn't have a key, so Fargo might have stopped by and simply received no answer.

Nathan lay there for awhile, not really able to convince himself to get up. The covers were just too warm and he felt fuzzy headed, sore all over, and his throat was scratchy. Lying in the cocoon-like covers, he drifted in and out for an hour or so. Distantly, he heard the front door opening and the sound of someone venturing into his room, but Nathan just snuggled deeper into his covers.

"Hey, scientist," came the familiar drawl of Jack Carter's voice.

Opening his eyes, Nathan blinked blurrily at Carter, who was dressed in civvies instead of his uniform. "Carter?" Nathan's voice was scratchy and he had to resist the childish urge to pull the covers over his head.

"You look like hell," Jack observed, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Have you eaten anything today?"

Forcing himself to sit up, Nathan shook his head slowly. "How did you get in here?"

"You keep a spare key in a very realistic-looking fake rock. I almost overlooked it, but there was just something… off about it." Jack eyed Nathan critically and then got up. Walking over to the closet, Jack found a clean t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants which he then laid out on the bed. "You should get into something clean and I'll find you something to eat, okay?"

Not waiting for an answer, Jack wandered out of the room.

Nathan stared at the open door for a long moment, feeling dazed. What the hell was going on? Unsteadily, Nathan got out of bed and shut the door. He leaned against the door, breathing heavily, and then reluctantly changed into the clean outfit. Why was Jack…?

Walking into the kitchen, Nathan sat down at the kitchen table and watched as Jack made soup on the stove. "Why are you here?"

"Because you aren't sick," Jack said quietly. "You were poisoned. Your lab assistant, Dr. Hodgens, went in this morning and is now in a coma." Nathan's eyes widened. "Henry, Allison, Jo, and I have decided to keep this quiet for now, but…" he shrugged. "Henry said you'll be fine once the poison works itself out of your system, which ought to take a few more hours."

Nathan leaned forward and massaged his temples. "How was I poisoned?"

"Whoever did it put the chemicals in the air vents." Jack took the soup off the stove and poured it into a bowl. As he went to place the bowl in front of Nathan, he continued explaining. "The toxin used dissipates over time, but Allison found traces of the compound in Hodgen's tox-screen. Henry, Jo, and I went over your lab and found some sort of dispersal unit in one of the vents. Henry thinks that it was put in there yesterday on the assumption that no one was going to be getting any work done. The toxin would build up in the air throughout the day, kill you today, and the evidence would simply disappear. Except you did go to your lab for a little while yesterday and inhaled enough toxin to make you feel sick without hurting you too badly. Since you called in to take a sick day, Fargo kept stopping by your lab to check up on Dr. Hodgens and Fargo was the one who found the guy."

"Is Fargo okay?" Nathan asked and then started in on his soup.

"He's got a headache, but that's about it." Jack twisted one of the chairs around backwards then seated himself on it, crossing his arms and resting them on the back. "Jo's recovered from yesterday, but she's investigating at GD under the pretense that, like some of the others, she's being required to stay under observation. Henry rigged up a fake version of the dispersion device with a locater in it so that when the person who planted it retrieves it, we can trace them. Allison identified the toxin as something Section 2 had been working on as part of a temporary-stasis experiment."

"Why does that leave you here, looking after me?" Nathan hated phrasing it that way, but it was true. If Jack hadn't shown up, Nathan wouldn't have started fighting to use his energy. Already the hot soup had made his sore throat better and moving around had eased the soreness in his muscles, mostly. It was just the fuzziness and shortness of breath that persisted.

Jack laughed, his expression open and mirthful. "Well, someone had to get you active. Henry said that the compound would leave your system faster if you got something to eat and stayed awake. I'm here since, technically, I'm only on call today. After yesterday…" Jack shrugged and waved his hands. "I have no real reason to be at GD unless there's an investigation. Since we aren't running the investigation overtly… I volunteered to check up on you. I'm sure the rest of the town thinks we're having some sort of tryst or whatever."

Dropping the spoon, Nathan stared uncomprehendingly at Jack. "What?"

"Apparently, the majority of the town has started reading Dr. Childress' fanfictions... which are typically about you and me and..."

"Varying degrees of smut," Nathan filled in, groaning softly and shaking his head. "I know. I caught Fargo reading it."

"One of Zoe's friends reads it and accidentally traumatized her; she's been trying to convince me that I have the power to make fanfiction illegal within Eureka's borders." Jack laughed, looking more bemused than outraged. "Since it isn't hurting anyone, I haven't confronted Childress or the other authors about it; in fact, it's sort of coming in handy right now."

Nathan nodded, "letting the rest of the town's minds fantasize about fanfiction turned reality keeps them from wondering what's really going on." His own mind briefly went back to the dream-kiss and he fought the urge to blush.

Nodding, Jack said agreeably, "so, any ideas on who'd want to kill you?"

"It's a long list," Nathan admitted. "I'd probably finish coming up with names by the time you've already caught the person."

"Aw, now don't be so negative," Jack teased. "Just because one person is trying to kill you doesn't mean that everyone you've ever irritated does."

"I suppose you'd have shot me by now if that were true," Nathan grudgingly agreed.

"Oh, I know how to be sneakier than that." Jack eyed the half-finished bowl of soup and then narrowed his eyes on Nathan. "You need to finish that."

"What are you, my mother?" Nathan grumbled, but he started eating again.

"Now don't be childish, Stark."

"So, basically I'm supposed to take it easy today while my would-be murderer is caught," Nathan confirmed. Jack nodded in affirmation. "The device in the air vent might have been placed yesterday with the assumption I'd die then and not be found until today," Nathan posited. "I wasn't really working in my lab yesterday. I've been pulling a lot of all nighters lately on a… personal project."

"You fell asleep in there?" Jack looked a bit surprised. "That can't have been comfortable."

"No, not really."

"So… this personal project would be figuring out what's wrong with Kevin?" Now it was Nathan's turn to look surprised. "Yesterday, Allison finally told me that something's wrong with Kevin, but she didn't say what just that it's been a while now and that she's scared." Jack's tone of voice changed as he spoke.

"Something the matter? You sound upset with her," Nathan asked.

"It's just… we're supposed to be friends, but she never even hinted that something might be wrong with Kevin until I confronted her about the real purpose of your dream receiver. You not saying anything makes sense; you don't even like me. But Allison… what's the point of having friends if you don't trust them enough to talk to them and go to them help, even if all they can give is moral support." Jack looked a little agitated. "So yeah, I'm not exactly happy with her right now."

Pushing aside his finished bowl of soup, Nathan wondered what he could really say to all that. For Allison to have not said anything about Kevin to anyone except him was actually fairly out of character for her. Part of it was probably the stress of being Director of GD, but still… she wasn't acting like herself by bottling this up. "I don't dislike you, Carter," was what he finally settled on. "You're too much fun to argue with to dislike."

"You like _arguing_ with me?" was the incredulous reply.

"No one else even tries to match me for sarcasm except you." Nathan was surprised realize that he meant it. It wasn't just that he was attracted to Jack… he really liked Jack's personality – the way Jack refused to back down and treated everyone as an equal. Hell, he was even really cute when he used words like 'invisibling' and 'death ray'. Licking his lips, Nathan felt his pulse pick up a little.

"It _is_ fun." Jack tilted his head to the side, his eyes sparking with amusement. "So, you think that the would-be murderer saw you asleep in the lab and seized the opportunity?"

Nathan nodded. "It's a possibility. No one would have found me until today and my assistant wouldn't have been collateral damage." Nathan scowled down at the table. "There's been too much of that lately."

"This isn't your fault, Nathan," Jack objected. "Neither is what happened with the shared dreams. Don't blame yourself for things out of your control, okay?"

Nathan jerked his eyes up to stare into Jack's as a stunned feeling descended over him. He wasn't sure what startled him more: Jack using his name or Jack's accurate observation of how he was feeling. "I… if I'd bothered to find out whether the neural net was running…"

"You didn't know the details of Childress' experiment, right?"

"Not the exact details, no." Nathan wasn't sure what Jack was getting at.

"Then its like when Fargo's mental mouse and Taggart's nanoids used the same frequency," Jack said. "They didn't know and if they had, it never would have happened. But it did and someone died because of it. What happened then was an accident just like what's happened now. So stop blaming yourself for what was an accident."

"Jack…" he meant to continue with the words 'it isn't that simple', but the truth was that hearing Carter say something like that did make him feel better. "Thank you," came out instead.

The smile that lit up Jack's face was entrancing. Nathan licked his lips and then swallowed nervously as he realized Jack's eyes had briefly flicked down to follow the movement. Surely he was imagining…

Carter's phone rang, interrupting Nathan's thoughts.

"Carter." There was a nod and then Jack frowned. "I've never heard of him. That's not important, though. Good work, Jo. Bring him down to the station's interrogation room." There was a pause and then Jack responded in a mildly exasperated tone, "because you said he works in Section 1. Scientists in different sections only talk about their experiments with immediate coworkers, friends, and Beverly. So either he found out about the toxin from Section 2 from a friend or he had a co-conspirator who gave him the poison."

There was another long pause and Jack smiled, nodding every now and then by habit. "See you in a few," Jack finally said, ending the conversation. Hitting the call-end button, Jack looked at Nathan again. "Until we know if there's someone else involved, you should probably stick with me or Jo."

"Then I'll go to the station with you," Nathan responded. Glancing down at his clothes, "I'd like to change into something else first, though."

-=-=

When they got to the station, Nathan had managed to get in a quick shower, and, though he was still wearing the black t-shirt that Jack had picked for him, he had added an unbuttoned, long-sleeved, navy blue shirt over the t-shirt and changed from sweat pants and slippers to blue jeans and tennis shoes. He felt much more alert and presentable as he walked into the station behind Jack.

Jack disappeared for a few minutes, leaving Nathan alone with Jo in the downstairs hallway. The basement of the station held a single interrogation room and a small shooting range. Nathan hadn't been down here since returning to Eureka and it brought back memories, particularly of the fire he'd caused to protect Callister from exposure as an AI.

Jo was watching Nathan curiously and Nathan was trying to ignore her while simultaneously trying to convince himself that he hadn't been staring at Jack's ass when he'd left. Clearly he was losing both battles since her stare was making him studiously avoid her gaze and his mind kept drifting back to the way Jack looked in his jeans and the dream-kiss.

It was all Dr. Childress' fault. If it hadn't been for her dream, Nathan never would have been standing around daydreaming about what kissing Jack Carter was really like. Stupid fangirl…

Jack returned in his Sheriff's uniform, confirming idle speculation that he kept spares at the office. Of course, Jo had found time to change into her uniform before Nathan and Jack had shown up, so clearly she kept a few there, too.

Not for the first time, Nathan observed how well-fitted the Sheriff's uniform was. Though, this time Nathan wasn't just idly noticing how attractive Jack was in it; he was attempting to keep himself from visibly staring at how Jack had gone from 'sexy' in his jeans and casual shirts to 'eye-candy' in his uniform. Unfortunately, he had to accept that he hadn't been one hundred percent successful in his attempt; Jo's eyebrow visibly raised as she continued to observe Nathan.

Glancing through the two-way mirror, Jack asked, "how long has he been in there?"

"Twenty, almost twenty-five minutes. He's starting to look at his watch more and more, so…" Jo smirked. "I'd say he's getting a little anxious."

"Good," Jack's face was expressionless as he stared through the glass. Then he turned to Jo and Nathan and flashed them a grin. "I doubt this'll take long." Then he pulled open the door, walked inside, and let the door swing shut behind him.

"Dr. Honda, you were apprehended by my deputy after removing evidence of an attempted murder from Dr. Stark's lab." Jack didn't waste any time getting to the point.

"I-I would never harm anyone," Dr. Honda objected.

"Then what was your air-filtration unit doing in Dr. Stark's air vents, aside from dispersing a potentially deadly compound being developed in Section 2?" Jack seated himself across from Dr. Honda.

"I don't know what you…"

"You were apprehended in the process of removing the device from the air vent, Dr. Honda," Jack growled, interrupting the man. "Now GD scientists are supposed to be intelligent, but if you really expect me to believe that you have no idea what I'm talking about then your IQ must be slipping pretty badly, huh?"

Honda visibly bristled.

"Score!" Jo exclaimed, smirking. "Hit where the ego hurts the most!"

Nathan snorted softly, holding in laughter.

"So… do you always stare at Carter's ass or was that kissing dream a wake-up call for you?" Jo asked twisting around to pin Nathan with a stare that reminded him of a hunter stalking prey. Or Lojack messing with Taggart…

"What?" Nathan knew there was no hiding his blush this time. She had caught him staring and they both knew it.

"It isn't that difficult a question, Stark," Jo raised an eyebrow and the words 'I'm waiting' went unsaid.

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

"He's my friend and his daughter is my best friend," Jo responded forcefully. "So, yeah, it's my business."

"I will not tell you anything!" Honda snarled. "Whether or not I'm in here, Sheriff, Stark will die like he deserves to. That man has no regard for life!"

"No regard for life, huh?" Jack echoed. "See, and here I was under the impression you actually knew something about the person you were trying to kill. Looks like I've overestimated you, hmm?"

"You… you think you know everything, Sheriff. The first federal agent to be permanently assigned to the position instead of a member of the military, so clearly you feel that must make you superior." Honda slammed his hands on the table, standing up. The man was clearly radiating rage.

"Sit. Back. Down." Jack's voice didn't rise in volume, but stayed calm and even. The tone, though… Jack's tone grew icier and more dangerous than Nathan had ever heard. Honda froze and stared at Jack for a moment. The scientist's eyes widened at whatever he saw on the Sheriff's face and he sat down, almost meekly.

"Now, in your anger, you've already given away that there's someone who was helping you. So you are going to tell me who it is and you are going to plead guilty to the charges against you. Is that clear?" Jack's voice was still enough to scare Honda into nodding timidly.

Moving his eyes away from the scene behind the glass, Nathan said quietly, "it was a wake-up call. More and more often, bickering with Jack over… whatever the crisis of the week is becomes the highlight of my day and I didn't even notice it happening."

Jo laughed softly. "You do have it bad, don't you?" She offered him a genuine smile. "When Allison called to tell Jack about your lab… I'd never seen him so worried. She didn't tell him you were home sick at first, and Jack was… he coordinated everything as fast and efficiently as he could so that he could hurry over to you and see for himself you were okay. He didn't say anything, but it was obvious to me.

"If you break his heart, though, I will not hesitate to organize a lynch mob."

"That won't happen," Nathan assured her and then looked through the glass at Carter. "I just… don't know what I'm supposed to say to him. Personal relations aren't exactly my strong suit."

"If words fail, just kiss him," Jo advised. "No one can fail to get the meaning of a kiss. Trust me."

"You've been reading Childress' fanfictions, haven't you?" Nathan accused.

Jo snickered. "Who do you think beta reads and edits them?"

"I hate you."

A clinking noise caught their attention, interrupting any further conversation between the scientist and the deputy. Glancing over, they saw a small metal canister lying on the ground in front of the stairs and pouring out smoke. There was no mistaking what the canister was: a bomb.

A/N - The idea of Nathan getting romantic advice from Jo amuses me to no end, especially if she's a fan of their pairing. 'Cause then you know she's squeeing inside and thinking about jealous all the other slash fans are going to be when she brags about it.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer – If I owned Eureka, then second season would have been slashier.

Author – Emcey

Info – AU of 2nd Season Episode "Noche de Suenos".

Teaser – It was all Dr. Childress' fault. If it hadn't been for her dream, Nathan never would have been standing around daydreaming about what kissing Jack Carter was really like. Stupid fangirl…

_**Chapter Three**_

The two of them stared at the bomb for a second, as if unable to comprehend what its presence meant. Jo was the first to recover from the surprise. "Shit!" She grabbed Nathan's arm and shoved him towards the shooting range. "Get in there!"

Nathan stumbled through the open door and turned to clear up what was going on, only to see Jo slam the door. He grabbed the door handle, but nothing happened when he tried to open it. He gave it a few extra tries anyway. Then a blast shook the building and knocked Nathan to the ground.

The door creaked open and, dizzily, Nathan looked into the corridor, which was filling up with smoke. "Jo?" Nathan yelled, struggling to his feet.

"I'm fine." The door to the interrogation room opened, letting out Jo, Jack, and a handcuffed Dr. Honda.

"We should get out of here," Jack posited, coughing on the smoke a little. "That explosive didn't do much structural damage, but…"

Nathan nodded in agreement, not much liking the smoke that was filling the air. They all hurried up the stairs and out of the building. Dizzily, Nathan leaned against the side of the station, panting for breath. It felt like there was a vise around his chest, though the feeling eased as he sank to the ground and sat.

"Nathan?" Jack's voice was worried, so Nathan looked up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nathan assured him. Jack held out a hand and, once Nathan took it, hauled the brunette back to his feet. "We should get out of here."

"Stark's right," Jo agreed, whapping Honda when she caught him staring at her chest. "That explosive wasn't really powerful enough to do much and was too noisy being dropped down there. Whoever left it was trying to flush us out."

Jack nodded unhappily. "Let's head back to GD, then." He walked over to his jeep and started to open the driver's door only to pause and frown deeper. He crouched down tracing something with his fingers. When his hand reached the bottom of the door, Jack looked under the jeep and let out a curse. "God Dammit. There's another bomb under my car." He stood up and glared at Honda. "It's hooked into engine, meaning that your friend was going to kill all of us, you included."

"Dr. Stone isn't my friend. She contacted me after my previous project lost funding while Stark was still in charge," Honda admitted. "This was all her idea; we were just waiting for the opportune moment to kill him."

"Dr. Angela Stone?" Nathan clarified. When Honda nodded, Nathan continued. "She works in of the cryogenics lab. I assigned her there shortly before I lost my position as Director of Research. In her previous project, there were major irregularities in both the research and the money allocation. I put her in cryogenics to keep her out of the way while GD's internal security went over her project. Then Allison became Director of Operations and it all became her problem, so I haven't really kept up with what's been found on her yet."

"She's being fired," Honda said quietly. "That's why this was the opportune time. At least, for her…"

"Jo, check your car too," Jack sighed and then looked at Nathan. "We should see if your car's been tampered with as well."

-=-=

After leaving Dr. Honda with GD's security guards, Jack and Jo left Nathan behind to go track down Dr. Stone, who was currently not in GD.

Nathan sighed and went to the medical wing to see how his assistant was doing. Seeing Hodgens in a coma was pretty eye opening. All he could think of was how he'd nearly been left the same way… that if Jack hadn't woke him up then the possibility existed that he'd have become comatose anyway. A hand on his shoulder caused Nathan to jump; he'd been too engrossed in his thoughts.

"Allison?" he asked, startled.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said with a smile. "When I heard you'd been exposed to the cryogenic compound, I was worried."

"Thanks," Nathan responded dryly. "How's Kevin doing?"

"No shared dreams last night, but after all that happened with the town-wide shared dreams I thought I'd leave the receiver off for a few days." Allison shrugged, though she seemed a little put off when Nathan didn't say anything in response. "Kevin wants to see you… make sure you're okay. He knew something was wrong this morning, but I didn't realize what he'd been trying to tell me until Fargo discovered Hodgens in a coma. You should come over for dinner tonight."

"I'll stop by to see him after school, but… let's not do dinner," Nathan responded quietly.

Allison regarded Nathan curiously, if a bit unhappily. "Why not?"

He wasn't sure what to say. There was so much to choose from. Them having dinner like a family sent the wrong message to everyone, especially Kevin, who seemed to be under the vague impression that his parents were getting back together. He really wanted to see if he could convince Jack to have dinner with him. He wanted a night off where he didn't have to worry about anything: not GD or the Artifact or Henry or Kevin.

Maybe that was a little awful of him, but he was human and, if nothing else, the stress was getting to him. Nathan needed time to worry about something that would resolve itself, one way or the other, fairly quickly.

He needed Jack to be there for him.

"I just don't think it's a good idea right now," Nathan said firmly.

Allison pursed her lips and stared at Nathan the way she would something she was about to dissect. Nathan knew that she was trying to rattle him, to get some sort of reaction from him. He refused to shift or twitch or do anything else that would give her any information to work with.

"Almost two months ago you were trying to repair our marriage and now you don't want to come over for dinner? What's going on here, Nathan?"

"I'm not trying to figure out what's wrong with Kevin in order to fix our failed marriage," Nathan hissed before he could stop himself. A scowl appeared on his face. "If you remember, you're the one who served me with divorce papers, so I don't know why you're bringing that up.

"In fact, since it's been brought up, I'm not helping Kevin because I'm obsessed with the Artifact, either. If anything, it's the reverse. I found out about the Artifact because of Kevin. When I discovered he was somehow connecting to it - before the field transferred to him - I wanted to know more; I had to know if the Artifact was somehow responsible for the fact that Kevin never responds to medication, knows all those equations we've never taught him, and all those other inexplicable quirks about him. I needed to know that he was safe. So, yeah, I got caught up in researching the Artifact and I inadvertently put Kevin in danger because of my obsession. That's why I'm so focused on fixing him.

"For me, this isn't about you, Allison, or finding out the answers held by the Akashic field. This is about Kevin."

"I know that!" Allison snapped angrily.

"Do you? Two nights ago you were questioning my motives in helping my son. Allison, someone who understood my priorities – _who understood_ _me _– would not have said what you did." Nathan was suddenly reminded of some of the fights they'd had before he'd left for Washington. Allison had never really understood his priorities, but that was partially his fault. He never been particularly fond of explaining himself.

"So you're refusing to spend dinner with Kevin because you're mad at me, is that it?"

"No. I'm not mad at you, Allison," Nathan knew the statement sounded false as the words came out of his mouth. He was frustrated and his voice echoed that emotion. "I need time to get away, even if it's just one night. I need to get away…"

"From me," Allison filled in quietly.

"From the past," Nathan corrected. "We're not in love anymore, Allie. But we do still love each other. With all the time we've been spending together, we might even make our relationship work again… until the same problems we had before show up because they never went away. All we'd do is hurt each other. You're my best friend, Allie, and if we screw up with each other again I'll lose my best friend. I don't want that."

"We could make it work," Allison said wistfully. "We could find the compromise we couldn't before."

"No, we can't."

"Nathan…" The door to the infirmary opened, interrupting whatever Allison was about to say.

"We caught her," Jack announced, walking inside. "Jo borrowed Taggart's bloodhounds and, well… are you okay?" He looked between the two, noting their unhappy expressions.

"Sorry, Jack," Allison apologized. "You caught Dr. Stone; that's great. It's just… we were in the middle of discussing something…"

"Actually, your timing was perfect," Nathan interrupted. "There's nothing left to discuss," he added pointedly to Allison.

"I'll be sure to let Kevin know you're alright," Allison said coldly, revoking his invitation to visit. She stalked out of the room while Nathan kept his mouth firmly shut to keep from saying anything that would piss her off further.

"I walked into the middle of a fight, huh?" Jack asked as soon as the door shut behind Allison.

"Yeah, well… I said a few things that were true, but that she didn't want to hear." Nathan shrugged. "Now she's mad at me. Allie will get over it, though. She's not the sort to stay mad for long."

Jack tilted his head to the side and regarded Nathan curiously. "Are you okay?" he reiterated.

"I'm still tired," Nathan admitted quietly. Talking to Jack felt natural; had felt natural ever since Jack had understood what Callister meant to Nathan. He'd managed to resist being friendly, though, because Allison liked Jack and Nathan had wanted to get the past back. But the more they'd worked together the more Nathan would forget his reasons for trying to ignore Jack. Now, though, none of that mattered. The past forty-eight hours - starting with Childress' dream - Nathan's reasons had been stripped away and slowly replaced with new ones that all supported venting to Jack.

So he did.

"Part of me feels like I never quite woke up. I've been off-balance all day."

Walking up to Nathan, Jack put a hand on Nathan's arm. "Maybe you've just been stretching yourself too thin lately. Trying to do everything alone… Nathan, if you need help there are people who would drop what they're doing and help you if only you'd ask. Henry, Fargo, me…"

"Allison and I both agreed not to tell anyone about Kevin's condition; we thought we could handle it alone." Nathan's eyes dropped away from Jack's and he looked down at the floor. Okay, he'd been the one advocating going it alone, but he'd thought, at the time, that Henry was too busy grieving for Kim and thus unobjective while the affects of the Akashic field would go over the heads of everyone else. "We haven't been able to understand what's happening to him, though. On the day of the accident with the Artifact, Kevin's therapist was having an unscheduled special session with him and one of the doctors in section five. Had I realized Kevin would be down there..." Nathan paused and moved back on target. The radiation trail had gone straight to Kevin, after all. Had Kevin been somewhere else in GD, the energy might have hurt even more scientists that just those in Section Five. It was better not to dwell on 'maybe' and 'could have been'. "Well before I became Director of Research, Kevin was identified as having a connection to the Artifact. So when it exploded, the energy it stored within itself had to go somewhere."

"Yeah and it killed several scientists and nearly killed you, too," Jack responded. "Is it killing Kevin, too?"

"It's doing to him what it did to Carlson. The human body can only change so much before it breaks down. The energy – the Akashic field – is altering Kevin's DNA." Nathan started in surprise when he felt a hand cup his cheek and found himself looking into Jack's determined blues eyes.

"When I first arrived in Eureka, one thing was almost instantly apparent; amazing things happen here when people work together. Somehow you will save Kevin. We'll find a way."

Remembering Jo's words from earlier - _If words fail, just kiss him. No one can fail to get the meaning of a kiss. Trust me._ – Nathan leaned forward slightly and was pleased to note that Jack was moving forward to meet him…

Then they were springing apart as, completely oblivious as to what she was interrupting, a medical doctor walked in to check up on Hodgens.

"I… uh… should go… um… help Jo secure the criminals," Jack stammered and hurried towards the exit. He paused in the doorway though and turned back to Nathan. "Think about what I said, okay?" Then he was gone.

"Lover's spat?" asked the doctor.

"Okay," Nathan growled, "first, we weren't fighting. Second, we aren't dating. Third… my life is not a fanfiction. Leave me the hell alone and fantasize about someone else's personal life!" He stormed out.

The doctor watched in amusement. "Awww… I love it when things come together like this. Those two are so perfect for each other."

A second doctor walked up and whapped the first upside the head. "Stop day dreaming and get back to work."

-=-=-=

Nathan caught up to Jack in the elevator and sent up a silent prayer of thanks when no one else joined them. The doors shut sealing the two inside for the ride back to the main floor. Jack was studiously ignoring Nathan in favor of the door, though, which was not so lucky.

Taking a gamble, Nathan reached out and hit the elevator stop button. Technically stopping the elevator was only supposed to be done in emergencies, but it wouldn't red flag anything unless an emergency switch was flipped after stopping it. Sometimes an elevator full of careless scientists would accidentally smack the button and it happened often enough that maintenance insisted on the emergency switch installation.

"What are you doing?" Jack demanded.

"We got interrupted," Nathan explained, smirking a little at the disgruntled expression on Jack's face.

Blushing some, Jack shrugged. "We'd… uh… stopped talking," he objected.

"True," Nathan allowed. "We weren't interrupted in the middle of a conversation. We were, however, interrupted in the middle of something else." He took a step towards Jack, crowding into the other man's personal space.

In reward, Jack's eyes began dilating and his breath hitched, almost unnoticeably. "Nathan," he breathed uncertainly.

In reverse of earlier, Nathan brought a hand up to cup Jack's face. His thumb slid back and forth slowly across Jack's cheek and the blonde leaned into it slightly.

"Nathan, what are you doing?" he repeated breathily.

"Picking up where we were interrupted," Nathan responded, his own voice growing huskier. Then he leaned down to bridge the gap between them and met Jack's lips with his own.

Immediately Jack was kissing back, the sheriff's hands reaching to slide up Nathan chest and then fist his shirt somewhere near his collar. Nathan's free hand moved around to the small of Jack's back while he deepened the kiss. His tongue slipped into Jack's mouth; Jack's taste was intoxicating and then suddenly there was Jack's tongue moving against his own…

They pulled apart reluctantly, breathing harshly in an attempt to regain equilibrium. Their foreheads remained touching, though, and they stared into each other's eyes.

"You're not just messing with me, are you?" Jack asked roughly.

"I'm not messing with you, I promise," Nathan responded. Impulsively, he kissed Jack briefly and nipped lightly at his bottom lip when he pulled back. His hand dropped away from Jack's face to land on the blonde's waist. Pulling back, he said, "I've been so busy chasing the past, I nearly missed what the future could be. I'd like for us to be just that… us."

"I'd like that too," Jack agreed. "Just… I can't be a secret or something like that," he warned. "So that means you're going to have to take me on dates and…" Jack trailed off with a worried shrug.

Nodding seriously, Nathan smiled. "Then we can start tonight. Will you have dinner with me at Café Diem when you get off work tonight?"

"_Yes_." Jack's response was immediate and emphatic. "I've got on-call this evening," he added in warning.

"Alright," Nathan said, nuzzling Jack's ear.

Jack's hands relaxed their grip and moved up to hold Nathan's shoulders. "You know… when we get out of here, all those slash writers are going to go crazy with elevator stories."

Nathan laughed softly. "They can fantasize all they want, Jack. We're the ones who get the real thing."

A/N – Afterwards, Nathan told Henry what was going on and the two of them found a way to save Kevin. Allison realized that she was hanging onto her relationship with Nathan because the past seemed safer than the future since both she and Kevin had been happier then. She then realizes that she's glad that Nathan's found happiness again, even though he couldn't find it with her. Zoe decided that Nathan was cool and there were happy endings all around. Of course… there were lab accidents, too.

There are always lab accidents.

I wrote this for Kit's list and I hope everyone enjoys.

Kit's Beta Note – Awww… how cute. Though… Jack's pretty scary when he interrogates people.


End file.
